‘Pulimurugan’ in Oscar race, only Indian film on ‘Original Songs’ list

The songs composed by Gopi Sunder from the Mohanlal film are in the running for the 2018 Oscars.

The makers of the blockbuster Malayalam film Pulimurugan have earned another feather in their cap!

In a major achievement for the Malayalam film industry, two songs from the Mohanlal film may soon be in the Oscar race.

Two songs from Pulimuguran have been listed in the ’70 songs eligible for Oscar nomination’ in the ‘Original Songs’ category for the 90th Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the list on Monday which features ‘Kaadanayum Kaalchilambe’ and ‘Maanathe Maarikurumbe’ from Pulimurugan. These are reportedly the only songs from an Indian film to have made the list, thereby making the achievement all the more sweeter.

The songs for the movie were composed by Gopi Sunder.

Taking to Facebook, Gopi Sunder said that he had no words to express his emotions and said that everything was made possible because of God’s grace.

Other songs in the list include ‘If I Dare’ from Battle of the Sexes, ‘There’s Something Special’ from Despicable Me 3, ‘Fly Away’ from Trafficked and more.

According to the rules, a maximum of two songs can be nominated from a film:

“To be eligible, a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.”

The film has also appeared in the ‘141 original score scores’ list.

The 90th Oscars will be held on March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and the nominations will be declared on January 23, 2018.

Pulimurugan is an action adventure film directed by Vysakh that was released in October 2016. The film was produced with a whopping Rs 25 crore budget by Tomichan Mulakuppadam. The film later went on to collect over Rs 100 crore.

In August this year, the film was released in 6D format, becoming the first Indian film to have done so. While the film went on to become a massive hit, there were also controversies that marred its popularity.

Soon after the film was released, there were allegations of plagiarism against the ‘Muruga Muruga’ song from the film. However, composer Gopi Sunder had denied the allegations that the song was similar to a devotional song.